Tradition

The Ypsilanti community has a rich tradition of organized band music - in addition to its public school and university programs. In The Story of Ypsilanti (1923), Harvey Colburn mentions a city band in the mid-1800's. This band was later dissolved and replaced by the Light Guard Band in 1872. This band was presumably attached to Ypsilanti's Company G of the Michigan National Guard, and performed at many military and civic functions into the late 1890's. A second Ypsilanti City Band was organized in 1876.

In Ypsilanti: A History in Pictures (2002), James Thomas Mann refers to and provides a photograph of the Ypsilanti Cornet Band, a group of approximately 10 players. The caption reads: "The Ypsilanti Cornet Band was founded in the 1870's and led by Fred Cutler. The band often performed while riding in a glorious chariot of blue and gold, or marching at the head of a parade. It was said there could be no finer or more inspiring music than that of the Ypsilanti Cornet Band. Eventually the band separated, the chariot was lost, and now even the memories are gone."


1948 John F. Barnhill Memorial Band

Perhaps the best remembered former Ypsilanti band was the "Barnhill Band", founded by John F. Barnhill, a professor of mathematics at Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University). In 1924, Professor Barnhill reorganized the Normal College Band and then, in 1927, turned his musical and organizational talents to the task of establishing the Ypsilanti High School Band and the Ypsilanti Community Band. The band was well known for its summer park concerts and was conducted by Barnhill himself until his death in 1941. The band was then renamed the John F. Barnhill Memorial Band in his honor. The Memorial Band was led by a number of area musicians most of whom had been band members under Barnhill. Unfortunately, the band's numbers began to dwindle and it dissolved in the 1960's.


Professor John F. Barnhill

History

The present Ypsilanti Community Band began on a January evening in 1979 when Lynn Cooper, then in his 10th year as director of bands at Ypsilanti High School, called together a group of his friends, former students, and EMU students. For several years, Dr. Cooper had felt a need within the community for an ensemble for adult musicians-a natural extension of his own successful public high school program. The Ypsilanti Community Band filled that need.

After seven years as conductor of the band, Dr. Cooper left to accept a new position outside the area. He was replaced by Paul Stanifer, a recognized public band program organizer. When Mr. Stanifer resigned, Charles Lee, a former band director at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, took up the baton. He was replaced by Ken Bowman in 1988. Mr. Bowman, a charter member of the band and retired high school band director, conducted the band through the next ten years of its history. Mr. Bowman retired at the end of the 1998 season. He was replaced by the current conductor, Jerry Robbins.

From its inception until 1998, the Ypsilanti Community Band rehearsed and performed its indoor concerts at Ypsilanti High School. However, in 1998 the Band formed an alliance with the Department of Music at Eastern Michigan University. For the next several years, the Band was known during the indoor concert season as the "Barnhill Band" (named in honor of Prof. John F. Barnhill and an earlier community band) and the Band rehearsed at EMU and performed in Pease Auditorium. During the summers, the group performed as the "Ypsilanti Community Band" in various outdoor venues. Under the "Barnhill Band" arrangement, a number of EMU students joined townspeople in the ensemble, bringing the membership up to about 70. The "Barnhill Band" arrangement dissolved after four years, at which time the approximately 50 members of the Ypsilanti Community Band moved rehearsals and indoor performances to Washtenaw Community College. Later, the Band moved its rehearsal space to West Middle School in Ypsilanti.

Since September 2007, the Band has rehearsed at Whitmore Lake High School.

Present

There were only 23 musicians present at the first rehearsal of the Ypsilanti Community Band in 1979. Today, membership has grown to about 80 and is increasing. Many of the Band's members commute to rehearsals and performances from a considerable distance. The players in the Band range in age from late teens to "in their 80's." Only a few are or have been professional musicians of any sort; most are people from a wide variety of walks of life who played in high school and/or college and who enjoy "making music" with other adults.

In recent years, the Band has performed concerts in October, December (a holiday program shared with the Ypsilanti Community Choir), February or March, and May--all in Towsley Auditorium in the Morris Lawrence Building at Washtenaw Community College. In the summer, the Band's schedule includes performances on Memorial Day at the Yankee Air Force Museum in Willow Run, a patriotic concert in an Ypsilanti-area park just before July 4, a concert in another Ypsilanti-area park in July, a performance in Milan in August, and a concert at the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival in August. The Band also performs regularly for the UA (plumbers and pipefitters) commencement ceremony in the EMU Convocation Center each August.

The Ypsilanti Community Band has also appeared at the Red Cedar Festival of Community Bands in Okemos, in Ypsilanti's Depot Town, in downtown Ypsilanti, and at Selfridge Air Guard Base in Macomb County, among other venues of recent years.

The Band is deeply committed to several strong traditions, one of which is "no auditions" for players and another of which is "all concerts are free to the public."

The Ypsilanti Community Band is a longtime member of the national Association of Concert Bands and of the Ypsilanti Area Chamber of Commerce.

Our Conductor

Jerry Robbins holds a B.A. degree in mathematics and music from Hendrix College and M.Ed. and Ed.D. degrees from the University of Arkansas in educational administration.  While an undergraduate, he played trombone with the Hendrix College Band and bassoon with the University of Central Arkansas Little Symphony and was selected to be a member of the Arkansas Intercollegiate Band.  While in graduate school he played trombone with the University of Arkansas Concert Band and the Northwest Arkansas Symphony.

Robbins began his teaching career as a high school band and choral music instructor in Clinton, Arkansas.  Later, while a high school principal, he played trombone with the Independence (Missouri) Symphony and sang with the Independence "Messiah" Choir.  While on the faculty of the University of Mississippi, he sang in the Oxford (Mississippi) Madrigal Society, played and sang with an early music ensemble, and played bassoon in the University Symphony.

While an administrator at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, he sang with the University's summer choir and played trombone in the River City Community Band.  He also played trombone in the pit orchestra for university musicals and played trombone semi-professionally with the "Stylemasters" big band.

During the time he served as an administrator at Georgia State University, he played with a big band, the Moonlighters.  He also played in the pit for community musical productions and with the North Fulton Community Band (now the Atlanta Wind Symphony).  He was the assistant conductor of this group for some 10 years, including periods of service as the acting director.

When Dr. Robbins came to EMU in 1991 to be the Dean of the College of Education (a position from which he retired in the summer of 2004), he joined the Ypsilanti Community Band as a trombone player.  From 1993 to 1998, he was the assistant director of the YCB as he continued to play "whatever was needed" in the band.  In 1998 he became the director of the group, a position he has held since that time.

Handbook  

Handbook.  The 2008-2009 edition (July 15, 2008 edition) of the Band's Guidelines/Handbook is now available for download or on-line use.  It will be modified during the year as circumstances change.  Each page is dated, so that you can be sure you are using the most current information.  This document contains a great deal of information of interest not only to Band members but to others who would like to know about the Band. See

Membership (p. 1)
Responsibilities of players (p. 4)
Dress for concerts (p. 9)
Responsibilities of band officers (p. 11)
Responsibilities of band staff (p. 14)
Responsibilities of band committees (p. 17)
Sections and section leaders (p. 25)
Band calendar (p. 27)
Board members and officers, terms, contact information (p.28)
Band staff by position, contact information (p. 29)
Standing committee chairs (p. 29)
Section leaders (p. 29)

Governance

The Band's governance documents are available here:

The YCB's Bylaws (May 2, 2006-April 28, 2008)
The AMENDED YCB Bylaws (April 29, 2008-- )
The YCB's Vision Statement
The YCB's Five Year Plan (Revised)
The YCB's 2006-2007 One-Year Plan
The YCB's 2007-2008 One-Year Plan
The YCB's 2008-09 One-Year Plan

Minutes of Board Meetings

June 2007
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008
May 2008
May 20, 2008 special meeting
June 2008
June 24, 2008 special meeting;
    (YCB Budget Jun 2008-May 2009)

Band Business Meetings

April 29, 2008


Band Membership/Instrumentation

The Band's current membership/instrumentation may be found here.  


Band Library

The current holdings of the Band's Library may be found here.  For information, contact Ms. Sandy Wagner, Chair of the YCB Library Committee, at <slwagner@wccnet.edu>

Awards/Recognitions

The Band administers three recognitions each year.

Ken Bowman Memorial Music Fund

Donations are received at any time to purchase music for the band in memory of YCB charter member and long-time former conductor Ken Bowman. Donors may actually furnish music, may provide funds for a title of their selection, or may donate funds for music to be selected at the present Conductor's discretion.  Before Bowman Memorial Music is placed in the Band's library, each part is identified using a special stamp as having been provided in memory of Mr. Bowman.

Harold Goodsman Award

Each year the Band's Board identifies a Band member who has provided extraordinary service in the logistical support of the Band. This person is given the Harold Goodsman Award, named in memory of YCB charter member and long-time area musician and school administrator Harold Goodsman.  Goodsman, who played trumpet, died in 2007, just short of his 90th birthday, only a few weeks after playing his final concert with YCB.  The recipients of this award have been:

2007     Aaron Taratsas

Ken Bowman Memorial Scholarship to Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.

Each year, in memory of YCB charter member and long-time Conductor Kenneth Bowman, the Band provides the funds to support the major expenses for an area middle- or high-school band student to attend the following summer's Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.  Donors provided the funds for 2008 and 2009 while an endowment fund was being built to support the project in perpetuity.  The award is administered by the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in accordance with criteria established by the YCB.  The award is made to a band student who will be in a Washtenaw County school district middle or high school the following year, who meets the BLFAC admission/performance expectations, and who has financial need to the extent that he/she would not be able to attend the BLFAC without the scholarship assistance.  There is an expectation that the awardee will play with the YCB during the following summer or some comparable time.  The recipients of this award have been:

2008     Isabell Salley, Trumpet, Clague Middle School, Ann Arbor